Entry Seventy-One: Adam Mahoney, You Just Won!

[The next many entries are the current story I am working on. This is one of who knows how many will be posted. Enjoy it while it lasts...]

Chapter One

Adam Mahoney was a tall man, too long for his bed, which reduced sleeping to a necessity and never a joy. He had developed a habit of waking up one minute before his alarm released its peal, a habit so ingrained into his daily routine that he had forgotten what his alarm sounded like. That explained why one particular morning in August the piercing whine that awoke him shocked him so badly he lost control of his senses as well as his functions and wet all over himself. He was so disoriented that he had said “hello” three times into the phone receiver before he realized the racket was coming from his alarm clock. After slapping the night stand aimlessly for another few seconds he finally found the box and mashed every button until the screaming stopped. With the high-pitched screech still lingering in his ears he fell back on his bed, a soggy, frightened mass of frayed nerves and damp cotton sheets.

It took him several minutes to calm down, aided by deep, cleansing breaths and several long draws on a cigarette, at which time the full impact of the wake-up call registered in his mind with clarity and he began the process of cleaning up. He stripped his bed of all linens and was relieved to see there had been minimal soak-through on his mattress. He gathered the large wad of sheets and headed toward the washing machine that was through the kitchen and on the other side of the house. As he crammed the offensive mess into the washer’s opening, he stripped off his clothes and added them to the load. He added soap, closed the lid and moved toward the kitchen, naked and in dire need of coffee and another cigarette.

All words and images ©2006/J. Colle